


Light Sleeper

by apostapal



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: (and romantic cuddling), (it's just snuggly as hell), Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Napping, Platonic Cuddling, snoring, soft old men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 23:58:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12420870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apostapal/pseuds/apostapal
Summary: Jack Morrison snores. Loudly. And no one’s sure how Gabriel Reyes, otherwise known as the grouchiest person ever woken up from a nap, puts up with it like he does. Not even him.





	Light Sleeper

**Author's Note:**

> Taking a break from sucking at games to write the sleepy old men stuff I keep thinking about when I go into work in the mornings. See full title [HERE](http://apostapal.tumblr.com/post/166322685637/apostapal-jack-falls-asleep-on-the-rec-room).

Gabriel first learned of the unspoken _joys_ of bunking with his new partner pretty much the first night of assignment. J. Morrison had the bunk over his, didn’t move a lot in his sleep, and snored. Good God, did he snore.

“You been to a doctor or something about that, bro?” he asked a few days in, over coffee and shitty scrambled eggs.

Morrison--no, Jack. They were on a first name basis now, right? Jack made a face, nose scrunched, and shook his head.

“They couldn’t do anything for it,” he said, “just told me it isn't sleep apnea so it's not really a major concern.”

How it wasn't sleep apnea was a mystery to Gabriel but he supposed they were with the best medical professionals this side of the world. Maybe they had a point. Or maybe they just wanted him to suffer.

Jack swapped to the bottom bunk. Gabriel slept on the top and hoped that somehow the enclosed space below would help drown out the noise. It never did. Some nights starting out he barely slept. It made the extensive testing and training even more draining. Jack seemed genuinely apologetic but there was little either of them could do baring requesting reassignment.

And by the time the first week went by that idea left Gabriel’s mind completely. He was stuck with Jack Morrison, by choice or not.

Eventually, Gabriel even gave up on earplugs. They had a tendency to fall out and never really helped much to begin with. It just wasn’t worth it. Instead, he just tried to find some miraculous way to sleep through it all. It took a few months before pure exhaustion got the better of him.

* * *

The first time Gabriel crawled into bed with Jack was a night he didn’t expect to really sleep through anyway. They were both miserable, too cold and shaky and Jack’s body seemed ready to fall apart at any moment.

It wasn't a ‘major seizure’ had been all the medical staff had to say about what happened earlier. Understandably, that did all of nothing to calm Gabriel’s concerns about his friend.

In the dim lighting Jack looked paler than usual. Slick with sweat on what little skin he had exposed from the cocoon of blankets around him. Jack hardly slept with blankets, this wasn't normal.

“You gonna be alright, cap?” he asked, balanced on the edge of Jack’s bed. He had to watch carefully to see the very slight shake of his head. “What do you need?”

“‘m cold,” Jack mumbled, voice thick from sickness.

Gabriel leaned down and ruffled affectionately at his hair, finding even it damp and clammy to the touch. “You've got all the blankets in our room, Jack,” he said, “and you know how they are about asking to raise the heat.”

Not that Gabriel wasn't tempted. He felt sore and shaky and cold himself, though clearly not to the degree Jack was coping with.

Jack shifted, peering out at him from his blanket nest, and it was utterly pathetic. Someone who could be so damn stoic and smug looking like a kicked puppy tugged at the most sensitive of Gabriel’s heartstrings.

“Can I lay down?” he asked, patting the bed next to Jack. Jack nodded and he flopped sideways onto the mattress next to him. “Can I touch you?” he asked. Jack’s body rocked with a tremor that shot Gabriel’s nerves up something awful but then he just nodded.

Gabriel tucked himself in closer, chin propped on Jack’s head and arms around his shoulders. Jack snuggled in against his chest gratefully. He squirmed briefly, freeing his arm to wrap it around Gabriel's waist, blankets flopping over with it. The combination of body heat was just enough to take the worst of the edge off.

He’d barely started to doze off when Jack started snoring. This wounded sounding thing, half choked off by the faint shivers still going through his body. But it managed to sound far less disruptive than usual. Instead of cutting the silence harshly it more seemed to fill it; like it was somehow preferable to not hearing Jack make any sound at all.

Gabriel fell asleep to the noise, Jack pressed to his chest, and was amazed he managed to get any rest at all. Still, Jack sleeping was worth the trouble.

* * *

Bedsharing, by the time they had an official word for what they were, wasn't a new experience. They managed to practically share a sleeping bag through half the Crisis and it was hard to tell what was more of a miracle; that both of them fit or that they didn't realize how clearly they felt about each other until later.

So crawling into their apartment on an average evening to the sound of Jack snoring loudly in the next room over hardly felt like a threat anymore. If anything, Gabriel felt anxiety and stress melting off him in waves. Jack was home, bed was warm, and he just had to climb in and sleep until his alarm rudely started the next day.

That night was a little different, though. The sound coming from Jack, though usually louder than a train horn, didn’t sound right. Gabriel paused in the doorway of their bathroom, watching him while he toweled off from a quick shower, and pondered over it.

The answer came to him when he finally climbed into bed next to Jack, rubbing up and down the line of his spine until the snore cut off and Jack stretched and rolled over to face him. He was bleary eyed and messy haired and... had something stuck to his nose?

“Are you wearing one of those drug store snore cures?”

Jack wrinkled his nose--at least as best he could with the stiff paper stuck to it. Gabriel fought a laugh, squeezing in closer even as Jack feigned sleepy annoyance and tucked his face against the pillow when the other man nuzzled up against his throat.

“It’s not working,” Gabriel hummed against his neck. “You’re louder than ever.”

Jack sighed and leaned back to look at him. “I was trying to help, since you keep getting in late. Figure you could use a slightly quieter room to fall asleep in.”

Gabriel shrugged and reached up to peel the nose strip off. Jack hissed softly, face scrunching, and Gabriel flicked it over his shoulder before pressing a kiss to Jack’s nose. Another crinkle of his nose but this one much more good natured.

“I’m used to it,” Gabriel explained easily. “Silence kind of freaks me out anymore.”

Silence meant no Jack. Silence meant he was probably alone. No one there to weigh him back down if panic bubbled up.

Jack pulled him in closer, fingers kneading into his shoulder muscles, and Gabriel went slack and pressed his face against the front of his throat. Felt more than heard him humming, like he was going to start purring. (If he got tired enough sometimes the snoring felt similar.)

“Better not have spent too much on those,” he mumbled, already half asleep. Jack laughed sleepily in response.

“Did it really make it louder?”

“You sounded like you do when you get sick.”

Another laugh. Jack squeezed him just a hair closer, nose tucked against the top of his head. “I’m getting my damn money back.”

Gabriel didn’t manage to fall asleep until Jack’s snore started up. Normally now. The irony of it wasn’t lost on him even in sleep.

* * *

Gabriel never realized how much he'd missed it until he found himself properly back in the company of Jack Morrison’s deadly snoring. It made sleeping so much less of a production. He could settle in without a white noise maker and a miserable roommate.

No one else ever saw the appeal, however.

When Jack fell asleep on the old couch in their makeshift base of operations one afternoon Ana looked ready to die. But he never slept, which was presumably why she let him be and looked at Gabriel miserably over the terminal she was trying to work at.

Maybe he missed the look. Or maybe he just never really heard Jack’s snoring anymore. Whatever the reason, he glanced over at Jack sleeping away, arms propped under his head, and felt something warm and fuzzy in his chest. Stretching lazily as he got to his feet, he ambled over. But any hopes Ana might have had for peace and quiet were probably promptly dashed when he slowly settled himself down onto Jack’s chest.

Jack’s snore paused only a tick, just enough for him to grumble fondly and wrap his arms around Gabriel, and then it was back up to speed again. Gabriel thought he heard Ana sigh across the room. But only faintly with the noise next to his head.

He just tucked himself under Jack’s chin, safe and warm, and squeezed his eyes shut. And somehow that awful dying engine snore sounded like a lullaby now.

When they woke up it was only because Ana gave up and started dinner. Spice and warmth filled the air and Jack stirred before he did, yawning and clearing his throat roughly.

“When’d you get here?”

Jack’s voice was still hoarse from sleep, gravelly on the edges. Gabriel shifted some on his chest, tucking closer, and felt warm fingers trace over the curve of his cheek.

“Your spacial awareness is getting bad, old man.”

Gabriel yawned and stretched his legs out, toes digging into the fabric of the far armrest of the couch, but he largely refused to move. Stayed there, eyes shut and tucked under Jack’s chin. He felt him shift, laughter rumbling in his chest.

“Remember when you used to be a light sleeper?” Jack teased. He stretched his arms over his head, joints popping, and Gabriel pulled a face at the noise and the notion.

“Yeah, you went and ruined that,” he shot back, more tease than bite.

“Eh,” Jack said, half mumble, “you like it.”

And unfortunately, yeah, he kind of did.


End file.
